Old Trucks Are the Future

Ok, so the Dumbplumber is an old truck junkie, Car Crazy to the bone. There I said it. I’ve been told that you can’t start recovery until you admit you have a problem. Well, if loving old trucks is an illness, mine is terminal. I have four pickup trucks from 67 through 72 and a ‘79 1-ton boom truck along with an ‘82 4X4 diesel (with 62 thousand ‘original’ miles, thank you very much) for good measure.

Okay, I keep the ‘72 Blazer and ‘67 step side as “project” trucks (both run) on non-op, but the rest I use in my water pump business, all licensed and insured.

72 Blazer.  The Dumbplumber thinks this is his car but really belongs to the Dust Bunny Queen

Call me crazy, but I can own, license and insure these old work trucks for less money than I can own one ‘new’ ¾ ton 4X4. Add to that, I can buy any part I need out of a catalog. Yes my bling loving friend, I can even buy cabs, motors and frames if the need arises and at a cost far less than a new truck. Nevermind that I always have a truck to drive while another gets repaired.

But let us just take a look at the economical aspect of this position. If I can get 12 to 15 mpg out of one or two of my $3,000 trucks, how many miles do I have to drive a new one getting 18mpg, when it costs $35,000 new, with another $3k to $4k a year to license and insure? And that doesn’t factor in the $10k you lose the moment you drive off the lot and another 8% a year in depreciated value of the vehicle. Keeping in mind that my forty year old trucks really stopped depreciating about 20 years ago and actually hold their value or rise with improvements and repairs over time.


It has become so lopsided that there is a cottage industry in restoring these old trucks into retro vehicles promoting all kinds of businesses using vintage lettering and worn patina finishes to attract attention. But under the skin these rolling billboards have power windows, A/C, power steering and fuel injected engines pumping out serious horsepower. Not to mention the head snapping stares from ‘blingmobile’ drivers in the other lane.

Nothing really says cool like a guy in a $60,000 dollar quad-cab diesel, all jacked up, with monster tires, watching your tail lights disappear into the horizon, just after the light changes. Now that’s a feeling no doctor can prescribe at any price. Dumbplumber

For Those Paying Attention:

A question for the President, the Attorney General, U.S. Law makers and law enforcement:

Once it is demonstrated and well established that our citizens have been victimized, bankrupted and demoralized through crony capitalism, bogus climate science, campaign fraud, pay to play politics and the Enviro-Nazi, eco-terrorist, jackboot-on-the-neck-of-commerce policies of both major Parties, will anyone be surprised when the offended rise up and start taking their pound of flesh from the offenders?


ADDITIONALLY….

“Our Civil and Constitutional Rights are ONLY those we are prepared to fight and die for. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are for academics to argue long after the bodies of the ‘wronged’ have been buried and forgotten.

Enforcement of those rights will be on those, through ignorance, felony, perceived authority, or position, who mistakenly did not fear injury or death.”

Dear Mrs. Palin

To Sarah Palin, Wasilla, Alaska

Dear Mrs. Palin,

I have admired you since September of 2008.

I supported your campaign with donations.

I believe you were the right candidate for this Country.

I supported your PAC when you were thinking of running for president.

I was devastated when you decided not to run, even though I knew it would be a meat grinder for you and your family.

I suspect, to this day, that you are the ONLY person that could accomplish what is necessary to save this Country.

I read your recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which confirms all my suspicions.

However, if you’re not a candidate, you’re just whistling in the dark.

Either you run as a third party Conservative candidate, with all the Tea Party and Conservative members of Congress backing you, which would ignite middle America and the Conservative base, or go back to Wasilla, shut up, and watch the meltdown. Because you know, I know and America knows that there is no candidate running today that would do what you would have done.

And absent that candidate, this is the end of America as I have known it for 62 years.

Without you, We are so screwed.

Dumbplumber

Saving America

Now I know what you're going to say.  Third party campaigns are the kiss of death for both the Third Party and the Party they left.  But before I make my point, it would be hard to argue that continuing on with what we have now is lunacy 'cubed', unsustainable and doomed to failure itself.

So, having said this, here's my idea.  Sarah Palin/Allen West under the Conservative Party.  But before they go there, they get Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, all the Tea Party Congressmen and Senators along with Rick Santorum (if he can contain his ego), Herman Cain, Michele Bachman and the likes of Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and the rest of the second and third tier to go along with "Saving America". 

Saving America is so simple it's stupid.  We're going down the tubes and no amount of politics, bi-partisanship, consensus or the Mother of All Boondoggles, COMPROMISE is going to save us.  The Super Committee makes my point.

Time to tell it like it is, give America the facts, let them know that there is no way out, UNLESS we take a chainsaw to Congress, not a leaf blower. 

If we do this and then lose, then at least I can say we tried.  If we don't try, we don't deserve to be saved and the Mayans were right, the end comes December 2012! 

The Guide to Idiot Economics

If you think taking from the working and giving to the slackers, deadbeats and dirtballs is good, then you’re an Idiot.

If you accept that stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor, the lazy, the drug and alcohol addicted, the self-inflicted unemployable and professional scammers is a good idea, you’re an Idiot.

If you are certain unemployment and welfare stimulates the economy, you’re most certainly and Idiot.

If you believe “redistributing” wealth makes everyone rich, you’re a babbling Idiot.

If you have concluded that government is more efficient than the private sector, you’re absolutely an Idiot.

If you postulate that adding over 85,000 pages of Federal and State regulations, each year, is good for business, you’re an oatmeal drooling Idiot.

If you have swallowed the notion that we need the government more than the government needs us, you’re a hopeless, unredeemable Idiot.

If you signed on to the idea that THIS government is of, by, and for the people, you’re a short-sighted, uncomprehending, oblivious Idiot.

If you envision that money coming from the Government is not money being supplied by taxpayers, well, you’re not just an idiot, you’re a flaming Loon.

If you are a Socialist, Marxist, Communist, Leftist, Libtard, Progtard or Eco-Nazi, you’re not only an Idiot, but you're more a part of the problem than part of the answer.

Dumbplumber

Economics for Idiots

Economics for Idiots

Dumbplumber has been looking for a way to illustrate, to complete morons, what will happen if we don’t change our ways. ‘Economics for Idiots’ may well be that vehicle. It goes something like this:

If your outgo is bigger than your income, your future is unsustainable and you will fail.

If you are borrowing 1.4 trillion dollars every year to pay for your entitlements and costs of operation, you will fail.

If you are housing illegal aliens and giving them free healthcare, free food and free educations, you will fail.

If 30% of your prison inmates are illegal aliens, you will fail.

If you are giving your public employees 100% more in pay and benefits than their taxpaying private sector counterparts, you will fail.

If you are providing public sector pensions that exceed the salary of the President of the United States, you will fail.

If you are giving unemployable slackers benefits for not working and paying all their healthcare, you will fail.

If you pay public sector workers twice what a private sector company will accept to perform a task, you will fail.

If you ignore hundreds of billions in waste, fraud and abuse, you will fail.

If you strive to create a majority voting base dependent on your largess, you will fail.

If you think taxing the producers to pay for the takers is a good idea, you will fail.

If you insist on ignoring the Constitution of the United States, you will eventually fail.

We are so screwed...2012

Dumbplumber

Reality Check

You know, there are moments that one discovers complete clarity, an overwhelming revelation or inspirational epiphany. An example of these moments are when you stub your toe crossing a darkened room; when you slam your finger in the car door; or when you catch your foreskin in your pant zipper. (Well that might be more clarity than you need)

In the wee hours of the morning, I had one of those moments. Melted down to its simplest terms: WE ARE SO SCREWED.

Let’s review: Since before Franklin Roosevelt, America has been going in the hole, some years more than others, but always in the hole.

Two: Over those years, waste, fraud and abuse of power has just gotten bigger and bigger, along with the social benefits granted by every Administration and Congress. (For those of you from Rio Linda and Vallejo this means ‘money for nothing’)

Three: Ignoring the unsustainable nature of these benefits, voters returned incumbent politicians to office, year after year, some for 30 to 40 years, upon election cycle promises of “austerity”, “balanced budgets”, “transparency” and FREE ICE CREAM FOR EVERYONE!  So America clearly lacks the intelligence to vote for its own salvation.

Four: With the election of Barack Obama, America was given a big dose of reality as to political corruption, secret back room deals (defined as transparency), crony capitalism, election fraud, abuse of power, blatant violations of the Constitution, redistribution of wealth cloaked as “leveling the playing field” and a snapshot of a president, who doesn’t know the word patriotism, can’t cite the Pledge of Allegiance or hold his hand over his heart, doesn’t know the difference between ‘corpsman’ and “corpse man“, and has indebted this nation more than the first 42 presidents in history combined. And Obama still has a 44% approval rating!

Five: Statistically, less than half of eligible voters cast ballots for our president.

These words sums up exactly the situation: WE ARE SO SCREWED.

Dumbplumber